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They say you can judge one’s character by the company he or she keeps. Not surprisingly, Virginia 9th District U.S. Representative Rick Boucher is keeping company with the nefarious, abortion-at-all-costs liberal pressure group NARAL, which works hand-in-hand with the equally devious Planned Parenthood. Not one satisfied only to guarantee so-called “abortion choice,” NARAL works to make partial-birth abortion — a procedure that kills a baby near full term and able to live outside the womb — legal. Now it’s come to light that NARAL is throwing in with Rep. Boucher’s re-election campaign.  

Mr. Boucher tries to position himself as a moderate despite his voting record (he received a 25 percent rating on the FRC scorecard and a 22 percent rating on economic issues from the Club For Growth), and the status as one of one of Barack Obama’s favorite members of the House. Not calling off NARAL and the extremism it propels won’t help counter that way-left-of-center record he’s accumulated, nor his out-of-touch persona developed in 28years of holding office in Washington. (Did you hear about his car purchase with campaign funds?)  

Recent polls show Rep. Boucher’s opponent, House of Delegates Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, who is pro-life, closing fast, which may be a sign as to why NARAL has joined the fight on Mr. Boucher’s behalf. That’s usually a sign, anyway: when the cover of an ally is blown, or when he or she is in desperate straights, the radical group figures it has nothing to lose and comes riding in hard and fast. The voters of Virginia’s 9th Congressional district must decide how much it has to lose by having a representative from NARAL as their congressman.

It’s bad enough when Nancy Pelosi bungles the Gospel into an incomprehensible defense of her disingenuous and destructive public policy and legislative pursuits. Anything to rationalize the righteousness of ramming through unconstitutional laws against the will of the people.

But when U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) (see LifeNews.com) invokes Jesus’ Golden Rule on the Senate floorto excuse his incomprehensible decision to vote to confirm Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, he not only ignores his constituents (see NewsMax.com), he shirks his responsibility to the U.S. Constitution by granting someone who doesn’t believe in it as written the power to redefine America (see TheRightScoop.com). The irony of invoking Jesus to put on the Supreme Court someone who believes in partial birth abortion and who, by virtue of that position, will have a huge say in determining the legality of that infanticidal practice, is abominable. But listen closely. In untwisting his verbal pretzel, Senator Graham is really saying that we must treat Barack Obama as he would treat us. If that’s true, then surely there was no reason to vote to confirm Ms. Kagan.

His bumbling foray into non-germane, nonsensical and impromptu theology is appalling and confounding. By contrast, his South Carolina colleague, Senator Jim Demint, voted against her confirmation (Miami Herald). The blowback from this, another in a long line of disappointments from the senator, is that a primary challenge in 2014 now is more likely, according to the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza at The Fix Blog. By the way, both of Virginia’s senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner, predictably, voted to confirm her.

Here’s the video, but CSNNews.com has much more:

Senator cum preacher Lindsey “Call Me Billy” Graham on the Senate floor explaining how Jesus inspired him to vote to confirm Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court despite her disregard for constitutional principles.

Here is a new television ad running in parts of Virginia, done by the Virginia Values Voter PAC:

The two sides of Creigh Deeds.

As we’ve been researching the legislative voting records of Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds in preparation for media interviews, we came across something rather interesting. In 1998, then Delegate Deeds voted in favor of HB 1154, a ban on partial birth abortion. That law eventually was struck down by the courts as being unconstitutional.

Then, in 2003, Senator Deeds voted against SB 1205 and HB 1541, also bans on partial birth abortion. That law was recently upheld by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

So, as a legislator, Deeds voted for a bill that was found unconstitutional and against a bill that was found constitutional. Great legal analysis by a current member of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee and someone who, should he be elected governor, will be tasked with analyzing the constitutionality of hundreds of bills that land on his desk.

Not surprisingly, in all the fuss over “the thesis” is the complete inattention given to Democrat gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds’ flip flops on social issues. He’s says he’s not for abortion, but calls opposition to partial-birth abortion “extreme;” he was against “special rights” for homosexuals (his words in his own campaign ad), and now says anything but special rights for homosexuals is somehow discriminatory; and he voted for the Marriage Amendment twice in the General Assembly to place it before the voters, but now wants it repealed.

We’re waiting for the Mainstream Media to pin him down on this and/or for the senator to come clean on his own. After all, to paraphrase Senator Deeds himself, he didn’t write these things when he was 34 — he wrote them, spoke them and voted them in his 40s and 50s.

Annotations & Elucidations

The Sunday Times

I had all sorts of wit and wisdom to make your Sunday evening or Monday morning a true pleasure, but I was derailed. Hey, you got two gems prior to this! So, let me point out some of the links of interest below. First, scroll down to the National News section, where two Virginians get a national spotlight, including Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-37, Fairfax). The Republican nominee for attorney general is highlighted in Human Events.

Meanwhile, the statewide press chronicles Democrat gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds’ leftist pandering on abortion “rights” and tax increases, all while his campaign is undergoing a major shakeup (according to the Washington Post). But don’t miss our friend Jim Hoeft’s analysis at Bearing Drift of Deeds’ and the Virginia Democrat Party’s attack on Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell. Apparently the Democrats have no problem with the barbaric infanticide that is partial birth abortion.

News:

Gubernatorial candidate McDonnell pitches his views to police (The Daily Press)

Deeds presses pro-choice argument (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)

Deeds dodges call for taxes for roads (Washington Times)

Deeds would sign tax-increase bill (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Shake-up or Not, Deeds Campaign is Changing (Washington Post Virginia Politics Blog) 

Assembly candidates focus on economy (Charlottesville Daily Progress) 

Fewer Va. schools meet federal math, reading standard (Richmond Times-Dispatch) 

N.Va. Students Improve, But Schools Fall Short (Washington Post) 

E-mails from public overload Congress Web site (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

National News:

Cuccinelli’s AG Bid Solidifies Virginia Conservatives (Human Events)

Allen Tries to Shake Off the ‘Macaca’ Shadow (Washington Post)

School prayer charges stir protests (Washington Times)

Analysis:

DPVA supports partial birth abortion? (BearingDrift.com)

Annotations & Elucidations

The Answer Is . . . Abortion!

If Virginia’s gubernatorial campaign was modeled after the game show Jeopardy!, where the answers are the clues and the questions are the answers, Democrat candidate Creigh Deeds’ response to the word “abortion” would be, “What is the winning campaign issue?” It may be, but not the way he’s going after it. First, he’s the one way out of touch. As a well -publicized poll showed earlier this year, a majority of Americans now consider themselves pro-life. But a super majority of Americans always have been against partial-birth abortion and for parental consent. So, who’s the extremist here?

But what makes this a particularly odd move by Deeds is that he has simply proclaimed it! That is, out of nowhere, he has flat out declared this is the issue of the campaign. As if he declares the ground rules. Okay, maybe he does. So at the first and only debate, thus far, with Republican Bob McDonnell, Deeds said the “social” issues wouldn’t be a big part of his campaign. Talk about decisive leadership!

Still, it remains funny that Deeds thinks he can make up the rules of the campaign (being far down in the polls does not dictate a position of strength); that he blurts it out of nowhere; that he contradicts himself; and, after all that, picks a losing issue.

Enjoy your briefing today from the News Stand. We are pleased to start off with video from WTVR/CBS6 in Richmond, which interviewed our very own Chris Freund about the Deeds gambit.

Video:

*Deeds goes after McDonnell on abortion (2:34) (WTVR-TV/WTVR.com)

The Family Foundation’s Vice President-Policy and Communications Chris Freund is interviewed by Richmond CBS affiliate WTVR-TV/6.

News:

Economy, abortion rights focus of gubernatorial race (Richmond Times-Dispatch) 

Deeds picks off political scab: abortion rights (Roanoke Times) 

Deeds targets abortion issue (Washington Times)

Deeds Throws Abortion Gauntlet (Washington Post)

Commentary:

Desperate Deeds (Ramesh Ponnuru/Right Matters Washington Post Blog)

OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE VIRGINIA SOCIETY FOR HUMAN LIFE ON THE RULING BY THE 4TH U.S. CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS UPHOLDING VIRGINIA’S LAW BANNING PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION

The Virginia Society for Human Life applauds the decision of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals today which upheld by a vote of 6 to 5 Virginia’s Partial Birth Infanticide Ban. This vital piece of pro-life legislation protects the lives of unborn children from the gruesome procedure known as “partial birth abortion.” During such an abortion a living late term unborn baby is partially removed from his/her mother’s womb and the skull is punctured allowing the baby’s brains to be sucked out.

The procedure also puts the baby’s mother at grave risk of future complications both physical and psychological. It is a clear victory for the lives of babies and their mothers in Virginia that the Court has upheld this reasonable and important law.

“There is no doubt that the Virginia’s Partial Birth Abortion Infanticide Ban will save the lives of hundreds of Virginia babies from this horrible and violent procedure. The mothers of these children deserve medical care that respect and protect their lives as well, rather then subject them to the dangers of abortion. Partial birth abortion is a deadly act that the people of Virginia have rightly rejected through the General Assembly and the Court was correct to uphold this important law,” said Olivia Gans, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life.

VSHL is very grateful for the leadership of the office Attorney General of Virginia, in particular Mr. Bob McDonnell for successfully guiding this issue through the courts during his term of office.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner likes to position himself as the consummate middle man — not one, says he of himself, of either extreme. We’re not so sure of that. After all, the man couldn’t bring himself to sign the partial birth abortion law when he was governor. The General Assembly, with broad bipartisan support, overrode him on it. Supporting the extreme brutality of partial birth abortion isn’t exactly a middle of the road position. 

However, Virginia’s new junior senator did show some good policy sense as well a bit of bravery in bucking the majority of his party on March 10. He was one of only two Democrats who voted to keep Washington, D.C.’s school choice law from expiring (see the Club For Growth here). We applaud him for that. (West Virginia’s Robert Byrd was the other Democrat and Connecticut’s independent, Joe Lieberman, who caucuses with the Democrats, also voted to extend the law.) Nevertheless, the amendment failed. Unless something changes, D.C. school children, who have vastly improved their test scores and other measurements of success over the last several years because of the school choice law, will revert to the old, monopolistic, failed public school paradigm — Go to school where you’re told young man and young lady!

Of course, modern American liberalism claims to be for change, moving forward, progress, and not returning to the “old, backward ways” that conservatism supposedly represents. But educational choice and the competition it fosters among schools is change from the old ways; it has moved D.C. students forward in their educational development; and, accordingly, they have made progress in their lives. Allowing school choice to die in D.C. is a return to the old ways of the ineffective, inefficient education monopoly — unless, of course, you are extremely wealthy and can afford the suburban D.C. prep schools. So, which philosophy represents the little guy?

Everyone agrees education is one of the pillars in leading a productive life. Yet some in Congress apparently don’t want disadvantaged students to get that leg up, despite the popularity of school choice among D.C.’s parents, politicians and students.

President Obama campaigned in favor of school choice while sending his children to elite private schools. It remains to be seen whether he will try to rectify this sad turn of legislative events. His endeavors to exert government control over currently free enterprises is not a good omen for fostering competition in government run schools. However, at least Mark Warner understood. Although we may disagree with him on many other issues, at least on this one, he deserves extra credit.

In the past three budget years, you have sent nearly $200,000 to the nation’s largest private abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, which, by the way, makes millions of dollars nationally.

Between 2006 and 2007 you paid for more than 300 elective abortions (not involving rape or incest).

Federal law requires Virginia pay for low-income abortions in cases of rape and incest. The Commonwealth, however, has decided to go beyond the requirement and fund “elective” abortions as well — hundreds of them. This taxpayer support of elective abortion is unnecessary and must end.

Likely, those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. The Commonwealth of Virginia hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with information regarding how much taxpayer money is going to Planned Parenthood and to fund abortions, requiring multiple Freedom of Information Act requests from The Family Foundation and legislators. The real numbers are yet to be determined.

But whatever the case, taxpayer funding of these entities must stop!

For several years, The Family Foundation and our many pro-family partners, have worked to put an end to taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood in Virginia. In 2008, we came ever so close and, for the first time, had budget language pass both the House and Senate that would have done just that, only to see the language left out of the final budget. We will work once again in 2009 to eliminate this funding.

Planned Parenthood, a national political behemoth, had an income in its last fiscal year of more than $1 billion. Incredibly, nearly one-third of that income comes from you, the American taxpayer. In its last annual report Planned Parenthood reported more than $330 million in government — i.e., taxpayer — grants.

What is this money used for?

Planned Parenthood is the largest private provider of abortion in the United States, performing more than one quarter of all abortions, or nearly 300,000 in 2006. As the national abortion rate has gradually declined in recent years, Planned Parenthood’s abortion number continues to increase by double digits.

It is an organization that works everyday to end abstinence education in our schools and to replace it with their own agenda, a so-called comprehensive sex education program that results in more kids engaging in risky behaviors, more sexually transmitted diseases among our teenagers, more teenage pregnancy and, yes, more abortions — from which it profits.

It is an organization that supports the barbarity of partial birth abortion. It is an organization that fears beyond imagination the thought that a woman contemplating an abortion might have the opportunity to view an ultrasound of her unborn child.

It is an organization that does not need a “bailout” from the taxpayers (which is what we’ve provided it all these years).

As lawmakers face a $4 billion spending surplus and complain about not being able to balance the budget, they can start with the unnecessary taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and elective abortions. The Family Foundation will support budget amendments this year that do just that.